


Girls Who are in Love with Love

by decadantcollectiondestiny



Category: Love Live! School Idol Festival (Video Game), Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-05 16:57:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18832834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decadantcollectiondestiny/pseuds/decadantcollectiondestiny
Summary: After a long and rainy day at Otonokizaka High, Eli and Nozomi arrive at Nozomi's apartment to do some homework. However, this seemingly normal afternoon will prove to be one that the girls will remember for a very long time.





	Girls Who are in Love with Love

The key clicked in the lock and the doorknob turned as the two girls stepped into the apartment, their rain boots leaving dark wet footprints on the doormat.  
“Make yourself comfortable,” said Nozomi, shaking out her umbrella, sending droplets flying out into the hallway. She glanced back at Eli, who was peeling off her drenched sweater. “Well, as comfortable as you can get with how wet you got out in that rain,” she giggled.  
“I’d be a lot less wet if that first-year with the side pony hadn’t careened right into me and knocked me into that puddle,” Eli pointed out, sliding her feet out of her dripping rain boots and soaked socks.  
Nozomi pulled the knot of her red Otonokizaka tie through, letting it dangle loosely from her neck, and looked Eli up and down. “My goodness, you really are wet, Eli-chi. Go and sit down and I’ll get some tea on.” She hurried to the kitchen to put the kettle on.  
Eli’s bare feet padded across the floor and she sat down at the table and opened her book bag. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Nothing got ruined,” she said gratefully. She looked over at Nozomi, who was carefully measuring tea into the strainer. “What about you?” she asked. “Did you get wet at all?”  
“Not too much,” replied Nozomi. The kettle began to whistle, and she poured the water into the teapot and flipped the small hourglass standing beside the stove. She sighed as she leaned on the counter, facing Eli. “I hope that poor girl handing out the flyers didn’t get too wet either.”  
“Me too,” Eli nodded. There was a moment of silence. Eli looked at Nozomi, who was gazing out the window. The sky was a sheet of grey, and the pitter-patter of rain on the pane was the only sound in the room. Her chin rested in her hands, and her long twintails fell over the counter like two waterfalls. Eli found herself following the contours of her face with her eyes, the roundness of her cheeks, the subtle curve of the slight smile that was always present on her lips.  
“Did you notice those boys?” Eli asked finally.  
“Which boys?”  
“The boys on the street corner right outside Otonokizaka,” said Eli, remembering passing them a few minutes after leaving the school gate. Nozomi had still been laughing about the stuttered and ditzy apology the first year had given Eli after she ran into her. Her lips had parted in a smile that brought a brightness to the dreary day, and her bright, clear laugh had rung out against the wet grey street. “Their eyes went round as saucers when they saw you. They couldn’t take their eyes off of you.”  
Nozomi laughed. “Are you sure they weren’t looking at you?”  
“Nozomi, I’m positive,” said Eli matter-of-factly. “How could they, with you right next to me?”  
Nozomi turned away, trying to hide the bright pink flush of her cheeks. She smiled to herself, running her hand back and forth along the handle of the kettle. She knew exactly why, whenever Eli said her name, it made her cheeks blush and her heart beat fast. She’d known from the moment she’d introduced herself in the stairwell that day in their first year. Not a day had gone by since then that she hadn’t thought of her, and how much sweeter the sound of her own name seemed when it came from Eli’s lips. “Well, I don’t care, even if they were.”  
Eli’s eyebrows raised. “Really?”  
“Mm hm,” said Nozomi. “I don’t care what boys think of me.” The last grains of sand slipped through the hourglass, and she picked up the tray with the teapot and the two mugs. “That’s why I go to an all-girls school.”  
Eli smiled. “Me too.”  
Nozomi turned, the tray in her hands. She smiled at Eli. “Interesting,” she said, her green eyes sparkling.  
She set the tray down on the table and poured the tea, handing one mug to Eli and keeping the other for herself.  
“Thank you,” said Eli, wrapping her hands around the warm mug and taking a sip.  
Nozomi watched the last bit of tension slip off Eli’s face as she sipped. Seeing her so calm and at ease filled her with a contentment that slowed the frenetic beating of her heart and slipped a small smile onto her face. She held her own mug up to her face, breathing in the warm steam and fragrant, earthy scent from the hot tea and letting out a sigh.  
“What is it?” asked Eli.  
“Oh, nothing,” Nozomi replied. “Just… glad to be here.” She sipped her tea, eyes closed, drinking in the comforting presence that was seated across from her.  
Eli smiled softly at her, then pulled her hair tie off of her high ponytail, letting her long blonde hair fall down her back. She slipped the hair tie onto her wrist and opened her book bag again. “I did some research in the library today for our history project,” she said, pulling a notebook out of her bag.  
Nozomi set her mug on the table. “Oh, good!” she said. “I went to the office supply store yesterday and got some poster board and markers.” She swallowed. “Do you want to… go in my room and we can start working on it?”  
Eli nodded. “Sure,” she said, her heart beating in her chest like the fragile wings of a glass butterfly.  
The two girls picked up their mugs and book bags and headed down the hall to Nozomi’s bedroom. Each sat side by side on Nozomi’s bed in front of the window and compared notebooks.  
“I think we’re getting close to the amount of information we need,” said Eli.  
“Okay,” said Nozomi. “Should I start writing some of it down on pieces of paper to glue on the poster?”  
“I think you should,” said Eli. “You have the prettiest handwriting.” She took her history textbook out of her bag. “And I’ll finish up the last bit of research.”  
Nozomi smiled. “Good idea.”  
The room fell into a serene silence, broken only by the scratch of pens on paper and the occasional flip of a page.  
Eli did her best to concentrate on the words on the pages of the textbook, but her mind kept drifting to the girl who sat beside her, the tick tick of her pen punctuating the placid lull with a staccato accent as she clicked it over and over again on her leg, trying to form the words in her mind that they might flow from her hand to the pen to the page.  
A sudden clap of thunder from outside made Nozomi start, gasping sharply in surprise. Her chest rose and fell with several deep breaths as she tried to calm herself, and she placed a hand to her heart, the quiet spell of the silent bedroom suddenly shattered. Eli longed to take her soft hand in her own, to wrap her arm tightly around her shoulders to comfort her, and to have the solace of knowing that Nozomi did, in fact, take comfort in her touch. Eli wanted, oh, how she wanted, to run her fingers through Nozomi’s long hair and whisper in her ear that everything would be all right, that nothing could touch them as long as they were together.  
“I’m done with this section,” said Nozomi. She placed the piece of paper she had been writing on onto the posterboard, which already bore the title of the project. “Should I glue it down here, near the top, because it’s about the most important event?”  
Eli leaned over Nozomi’s shoulder and read the slip of paper. “Maybe you should put it further down, and we can make it a timeline.” She reached around her and pointed to a spot on the poster board. “Because a lot of other events lead up to and cause this event.”  
“Ahh,” Nozomi nodded. “That does make sense.” She laughed. “You’re so good at organizing things, Eli-chi. You should do something with it.”  
“What do you mean?”  
Nozomi shrugged. “I don’t know… You would make a great student council president,” she mused.  
“Euh… No…” Eli smiled, looking down at the floor.  
“You would!” Nozomi insisted. “I know you would.”  
“Alright,” laughed Eli, “but you’ll have to be vice-president along with me.”  
“Deal,” said Nozomi, extending her hand for a shake.  
Eli smiled and shook her head, reaching her hand forward to shake Nozomi’s.  
Suddenly, Nozomi lunged forward and began to tickle Eli. Eli burst into peals of laughter and slapped weakly at Nozomi’s hands. “Oh, no, no, no, stop, stop, stop, stop!” she cried in between fits of laughter. Nozomi kept going, her impish smile growing wider, joining Eli in her bursts of giggles. There was no way she would have passed up an opportunity to see Eli’s dazzling smile and hear her musical laugh.  
Finally, exhausted from laughter, Eli fell over backwards onto the bed, looking up at the ceiling and still laughing. Nozomi followed suit, wiping tears of laughter out of her eyes. When she turned her head to look at Eli, she found that her blue eyes were already locked on her. In any other circumstance, despite the overwhelming desire to stare deep into the eyes of the girl who lay across from her, Nozomi would have looked away in embarrassment after but an instant. But, in that moment, those blue eyes were Nozomi’s entire world. They spoke of passion, of security, of comfort.  
A strand of blonde hair was in front of Eli’s face. Nozomi carefully reached out a hand and brushed it behind Eli’s ear, tracing the outline of her face with her fingers, her touch lingering for a moment, as if attracted by the pull of a magnet.  
“Will you be my girlfriend?” Eli suddenly blurted. Eli’s own eyes widened at what she had just said. She meant it, of course, she would never take it back, but she had had no intention of saying it at that moment. The words had just slipped out.  
Nozomi’s mouth dropped open ever so slightly. Her wide eyes began to brim with tears.  
“N-Nozomi?” Eli asked quietly.  
Nozomi tried to speak, but no words came out of her mouth.  
Eli bit her lip. “Nozomi, say something.”  
“Eli-chi, I…” Nozomi began. She swallowed. “I always dreamed… that someday I would hear you say those words to me… but I knew… I never would…”  
“Nozomi... “ Eli sat up. Nozomi did the same. “You…” Eli began, taking Nozomi’s hands in hers. “I…” she tried to continue, but nothing came to her mind except for the one phrase she knew she wanted, she knew she needed to say.  
“I love you,” she said, looking deep into Nozomi’s eyes, a single tear sliding out of one of her own. “I love everything about you. You - you make my life so much better. I-” She was crying now. She couldn’t help it. Her words became caught in her throat and she threw her arms around Nozomi and burst into floods of tears.  
Nozomi stroked her hair, tears sliding down her face. “I love you too, Eli-chi,” she said softly. “I love you, Eli. I love you. I love you.” Eli said nothing, just held Nozomi tighter.  
“Eli-chi,” Nozomi said again, slipping her fingers under Eli’s chin.  
Eli lifted her tear-stained face to look at Nozomi. Her blue eyes shone with tears and newfound joy. “Hm?”  
Nozomi said not a word, but slowly leaned in close to Eli and pressed her lips against hers.  
Eli’s eyes fluttered closed, and she kissed her girlfriend in the quiet stillness of her bedroom with the only sound being the tapping of the rain on the window behind them and the only emotions emanating throughout the room being serenity, bliss, and pure, unfiltered love.


End file.
